Journal News

News about 2016 Conference in the Americas

ASSOCIATION NEWS

From the Board

By Seung Won Yoon

Warm season’s greetings! Hope you had time to reflect back on 2014 and have laid out good plans for 2015. One of my plans is to have a good time at the 2015 AHRD Conference in the Americas in St. Louis as I meet with colleagues and friends to determine summer research projects.

Since the 2014 conference in Houston, my charge within the AHRD Board has changed to membership strategies. This role started with analyzing membership trends and patterns (by performing membership database queries), repeatedly reading conference feedback and past member survey results, and actively discussing and sharing where to focus and what to do with fellow board members — addressing issues of retention, recruiting, and growth. Monthly board meetings further confirmed that membership is vitally and mightily affected by satisfaction and involvement. Without the latter, the former is impossible. I clearly see that conference experiences, professional development and growth opportunities, and member involvement throughout the leveraging of the Academy website and various social and communication channels are keys to sustain a healthy growth of our community. If you have never or rarely checked out AHRD.org, I challenge you to view the website or post a message or comment to Academy social media sites linked from the website!

Based on processes described above, my first job was to reach out to lapsed members during August and September of 2014. Eighteen members rejoined the Academy during that campaign. During last and this month, the member-only Digest, which everyone should read for important Academy news and updates, has been sent to everyone affiliated with academic HRD programs in the U.S. These days, my daydreams and sleepless nights are about ways to better reach out to academic program coordinators and SIG chairs to better align membership initiatives with member involvement and growth. Truly, membership strategies are not a single-dimension work that stops at events or campaigns. As I engage in this role, I see that each and everything we do, including professional development, global strategies, journals, SIG work, review and awards, and conference planning critically affects many individuals, groups, the Academy as an organization, and ultimately, the people we serve.

Every time I venture into a new task, I find the need to reach out for more effective and joyful work — and without exception, my fellow board members and AHRD friends come to help. My appreciation for the Academy is positively and very significantly correlated to the extent of my involvement with AHRD colleagues and friends. Each year seems to start with a long list of things to do and wish lists. Personally, another goal I have for this year is to see a quality special issue from HRDI on HRD in South Korea. I hope this message can give you a moment to see how or whom you can reach out to to achieve your meaningful goals this year. Thank you, everyone, for your support and hard work in serving our community!

Welcome New Board Member

AHRD Board wants to thank Ellen Scully-Russ for her time volunteering with the Board. We welcome Ross Azevedo as our newest Board member. He is with the University of Minnesota.

Robin Grenier and Jessica Li were re-elected.

Thank you to those that voted!

NEWS FOR MEMBERS

Webinar on January 28 at 10 am EST: Middle East Crises and the Impact on/of International HRD

This Webinar will host a panel of top scholars in international affairs and in international Human Recourse Development (HRD) — Greg Gause, AAhad Osman Gani, and David McGuire — to discuss recent events in the Middle East and the impact of the sociopolitical environment on broad-based perspectives of HRD practices.

While numerous factors influence HRD work in general and international work in particular, several of these factors deserve special attention when designing and managing international HRD interventions. Two of these factors include paying attention to socioeconomic conditions and constructing the meaning of work. With all the uncertainty in the Middle East, a region infected with conflict and detestation, questions about living conditions, moral caring about people, and ethical business behavior are hard to answer.

In addition, understanding how individuals in that region are reconstructing the meaning of work is a central question for HRD professionals. One important aspect in understanding meaning of work is to consider work’s relative importance when it is compared to other factors such as safety, family, religion, and community. Our panel will engage in a dialogue to shed some light on how socioeconomic factors are driving HRD practices, and how, if possible, HRD can play a role in easing the pain and hopefully shaping the future of that part of the world.

Faculty Mentoring Partner Project!

We are excited to launch a formal mentoring program to address the career/professional development needs of HRD faculty across different career levels (i.e., junior, mid-career, senior).

Based on survey feedback concerning faculty development needs, the AHRD Board approved a pilot project for a faculty mentoring partner program to be launched at the AHRD 2015 Conference in the Americas. The program concept is based on the relational mentoring literature where both parties in the mentoring relationship can be mentors and/or mentees depending on their development needs.

For our pilot program, we will accept a small number of faculty interested in enhancing their career development needs. Our intent is to test-run the program to understand how it can best attend to our faculty members’ professional development.

Leadership SIG Is Now on Twitter

Follow the AHRD Leadership SIG for the latest tweets about SIG Leadership happenings before and during the conference #AHRD2015, as well as to hear about upcoming webinars, interesting articles, and more @SIGLeadership!

JOURNAL NEWS

HRDR

SAGE Publication has featured HRDR in its Management Ink online media outlet to announce its SSCI indexing. Please see http://managementink.wordpress.com/ for complete details and the link to get free access to a recent HRDR issue.

HRDI

HRDI is putting together a special issue on HRD in South Korea. If interested in submitting a manuscript or serving as a reviewer, please contact Seung Won Yoon, Doo Hun Lim, or Daeyeon Cho at hrdswon@gmail.com by Jan. 31, 2015. Manuscript authors and anyone interested are encouraged to come to the related Food ‘n' Thought session at the 2015 AHRD conference in St. Louis.

HRDI Perspectives Editor Search 2015

Call for new Associate Editor, Perspectives Section, HRDI

On behalf of the Board of Directors of Human Resource Development International (HRDI), and Routledge/Taylor & Francis as publisher of HRDI, I am inviting nominations for the position of Associate Editor for the Non-Refereed ("Perspectives") Section. The position will become vacant because of the appointment of the previous office holder to the position of Associate Editor for the Refereed Section. The Associate Editor for Perspectives works with the Editor on all aspects related to the non-refereed section of the journal, including perspectives on research, on theory, on practice, on people, and book reviews. The responsibility of the Associate Editor for Perspectives is to solicit contributions, provide feedback to authors, and make acceptance recommendations to the Editor related to manuscripts submitted to the non-refereed section of the journal.

The successful candidate is expected to start on September 1, 2015; the end date for the appointment is August 31, 2018. Upon successful performance in this role, the Associate Editor for Perspectives is expected to assume the role of Associate Editor for the Refereed Section (three-year term) and subsequently take over the leadership of the journal as Editor for another three-year term. Prerequisites include holding a tenured or tenure-line position at a research university, successful history of scholarship and publication in HRD and related fields of study, experience and interest in international dimensions of the field, support from the home academic department, and service as reviewer and editorial board member of one or more major journals.

Self-nominations are encouraged and should include a statement of vision and goals for the Associate Editor role, relevant prior experience with major research journals, and a full curriculum vitae. Submission deadline is March 31, 2015; the decision will be announced in June, 2015. Please submit all applications to R.Poell@uvt.nl.

Professor Rob Poell
Chair, Board of Directors, HRDI

NEWS ABOUT 2016 CONFERENCE IN THE AMERICAS (February 18-20, 2016)

Call for Nominations — Program Team Positions

2016 AHRD International Research Conference in the Americas

The Academy of Human Resource Development (AHRD) is seeking applications or nominations for key leaderships positions related to the AHRD International Research Conference in the Americas.

Associate Editor, AHRD Conference Proceedings. The Associate Proceedings Editor serves a three-year term (progressively serving in three positions between March 2015 and March 2018). The first year is spent as the Associate Proceedings Editor for the 2016 Conference Proceedings of the AHRD International Research Conference in the Americas, having primary responsibility for managing the peer review process and serving as the primary contact with the conference track chairs during the review process. The second year is spent as Proceedings Editor for the 2017 Conference Proceedings, and the third year is spent as the Program Chair for the 2018 Conference. Download a document for the full position description.

Track Chairs: The Track Chairs serve a key strategic leadership role and ensure that the content and the design of the refereed and non-refereed sessions are supportive of the particular Track. Track Chairs are responsible for assembling and managing a team to support their efforts, including the possible designation of one or more Associate Track Chairs. This is a twelve-month renewable position, effective March 2015 through the conclusion of the AHRD conference. There are eight Track Chair positions to be filled. Former Track Chairs, SIG leaders, and leading scholars/practitioners are strongly encouraged to apply. Download a document for the full position description.

Applications or nominations, in the form of a vitae/résumé and a cover letter specifying the interest and qualifications as related to the role should be sent to the AHRD Office at office@AHRD.orgby February 13, 2015 (midnight MST). Selection of these positions will be made by the 2016 AHRD International Research Conference in the Americas Program Team (Program Chair, Jason Moats, and Proceedings Editor, Angela Titi Amayah) in consultation with the AHRD Board of Directors.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Stay Informed about the 2015 Conference with Social Media

So much information can be gathered and shared using social media platforms during the 2015 conference. Attendees can leave and receive comments about particular speakers or sessions, share what they think about the event, post pictures, quickly find other attendees and, of course, share the best places to eat (and drink!).

The 2015 Conference is on Twitter at #2015AHRD.

If you haven’t joined Twitter, check out the site. It’s simple to get started and the site offers support along the way. Checkout the Twitter help page for basics on getting started.
Once you join Twitter, here are some tips for using it at this year’s conference:

Use #AHRD2015 and do a search for it. Save your search so that you can look through conference Tweets easily. (You can save searches on the website and the Twitter app.)

Consider putting together a list of speakers or events that you can follow and get to know ahead of time.

Start Tweeting about the event a day or two beforehand. Tweet things like “Prepping for my presentation” or “Off to the airport” and consider including a picture.

At the conference, read the tweets for #AHRD2015 and think about them as silent conversations happening during the event. You might be listening to a speaker and someone tweets out a comment about what is being said or presented; when you respond, it starts a virtual conversation.

If you plan on live tweeting/typing during a session, you may offend some people who may not realize what you are doing, so let them know ahead of time or just sit in the back or the side.

See you in St. Louis!

JOB POSTINGS

The College of Social Sciences, Health, and Education at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio, invites applicants with expertise in organizational research to fill a tenure-track, assistant/associate professor position in its interdisciplinary Leadership Studies Doctoral Program (Doctor of Education, EdD) housed in the Department of Educational Leadership and Human Resource Development. The position begins in Fall 2015. Read More

The Department of Human Development and Consumer Sciences (HDCS) in the College of Technology at the University of Houston seeks qualified candidates for an Instructional Assistant/Associate Professor position in Human Resource Development (HRD). The preferred fields of specialization are: organization development, instructional design, adult learning and learning and development, but the position is open to all interest areas. Read More